Jennifer Jo Lees

Jennifer had known she was a female since the age of four, and couldn’t understand why she ‘wasn’t like the other girls’. Jennifer had been born a boy.

School days were a struggle as Jen also struggled with Autism as well as being in the wrong body. For years I kept Jennifer a secret and would only buy clothes online so I could dress up at home by myself.

It wasn’t until she was 19 that Jennifer got to be herself for the first time she seized the opportunity to raid her mum’s wardrobe, while Mum was on holiday. Jennifer had been terrified of her family’s reaction, but finally came out fully in October 2015.

She started hormone replacement therapy a year later. To be able to complete her full transformation, Jen has to live as a woman for a period of two years and undergo psychological counselling. It has been a difficult journey, and Jen was told she’d need to lose 7st in order to reach a safe weight to undergo gender reassignment surgery.

Jennifer has gone from being ‘down’ to ‘determined’, and says her coming out has been met with ‘nothing but love’

Jennifer has gone from a ‘shy shut-in’ to a social butterfly.

“I am finally being true to myself and living life as the person I should be and always was on the inside”’